CASE: Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP)

Nigeria

FAO/ILO/Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMAYD)

The Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme was designed in 2013 to increase decent rural employment opportunities for Nigerian youth along area-based priority agricultural value chains. The programme was expected to create 750,000 jobs for youth in the agricultural sector, over a 5-year period. 

CASE: Graduate Internships Scheme (GIS) from the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P)

Nigeria

Federal Government of Nigeria

The Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) is established as part of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE – P) and it will employ 50,000 youth across the country to ensure that their skills have been developed towards empowering them to be employable in the short/medium/long term. GIS will ensure that youths are attached as apprentices in reputable public/private firms for a period of one year where the skills of such individuals will be sharpened as well as boost their chances of becoming self-employed.

CASE: TREE - Training for rural economic empowerment

Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Niger

ILO

The ILO’s Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (TREE) Programme is a proven platform that assists those working in largely informal economies to build the skills and abilities needed to generate additional income. Tested under recent technical cooperation projects in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Niger, TREE builds on ILO’s long-standing experience in promoting Community-Based Training worldwide. Starting with institutional arrangements and planning among partner organizations at the national and local levels, a TREE programme aims to systematically identify employment and income generating opportunities at the community level, design and deliver appropriate training programmes with local public and private training providers; and provide the necessary post-training support, for example, facilitating access to markets and credit. By linking training directly to community-determined economic opportunities, TREE programmes ensure that skills delivered are relevant. In communities where formal training institutions do not exist, for example in remote rural locations, arrangements for mobile training may bring in teachers and equipment to identify appropriate levels of training, design curricula and deliver training locally. This can serve as one measure to strengthen training delivery by formal institutions through development of new training programmes that meet local demands.

CASE: Promotion de l’emploi des jeunes en milieu rural (PEJ II)

Morocco

Ministère du Travail et de l’Insertion professionnelle (MTIP)/GIZ

Approach of employment promotion through mediation between supply and demand. Establishment of local centers for orientation and support for rural youth in order to improve their employability and find a job. From 2015-2017, 2 500 youth were supported and half of them found a job.

CASE: Internship model

Madagascar

PROSPERER (Support Programme for Rural Microenterprise Poles and Regional Economies) (IFAD, Ministère de l’agriculture)

PROSPERER had adopted a dual training approach in which periods of training at a centre are alternated with periods of hands-on experience working for a host enterprise. Apprentices and host enterprises received a monthly indemnity from the programme. Many of the apprentices were eventually hired by the host enterprises on a full-time basis and at competitive wages. Employment rates were high, with over two thirds of the graduates being in some form of employment (wage/salary or self-employment) six months after training. About 20-30 per cent of graduates decided to set up their own enterprises.

CASE: STRYDE - Strenghtening Rural Youth Development through Enterprise Programme

Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya

Mastercard Foundation & Technoserve

In the first phase of the program, STRYDE delivered a comprehensive package of services including skills training, business development and mentoring to young people ages 18 to 30 in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. It aimed to equip 15,000 rural youth by 2015 with the skills and knowledge necessary to capitalize on economic opportunities and increase their incomes, with the ripple effects benefiting more than 67,000 family members.

CASE: ENABLE YOUTH & PROJERMO (Mid-West Rural Youth Enterprises Project)

Madagascar

AfDB, Ministry of Agriculture

PROJERMO comprises (i) the installation of 500 rural youth enterprises, 40% of which will be owned by women in sectors along the agricultural value chain (production, processing and marketing of agricultural products) and (ii) development of irrigated lowland plots covering a total area of some 2,200 ha for local farmers. Some 500 rural youth enterprises, their families and the entire population of the 12 municipalities in the project area estimated at 186,500 inhabitants (of whom 51% are women) will benefit from the project. ENABLE YOUTH aims to create youth employment through agribusiness ventures. The country views the initiative as a vehicle towards not only job creation but also addressing food and nutrition security concerns in the country.

CASE: Out-of-School Project

Mali

USAID

The project’s model focused primarily on the promotion of self-employment of uneducated youth, and included basic education and entrepreneurship skills development. Youth volunteers and unemployed university or professional school graduates were in charge of dispensing the basic education and entrepreneurship courses. Each participant received a mobile phone with a preloaded learning application, including the curricular content in support of the literacy, numeracy, functional French and entrepreneurship courses. This provided youth with the opportunity to review course work outside of class in a systematic manner.

CASE: NUYEP (Northern Uganda Youth Entrepreneurship Project)

Uganda

UKAid

The Northern Uganda Youth Entrepreneurship Project (NUYEP) was a social and economic empowerment programme aimed at improving the livelihoods of 10,800 youth and their families through entrepreneurship. NUYEP - implemented by Enterprise Uganda and Youth Business International and funded by the Department for International Development (DfID) - used a combined approach: focusing on mindset-change training, business follow-ups, and personalized support such as mentoring.

CASE: FIER (Rural Youth Vocational Training, Employment and Entrepreneurship Support Project)

Mali

FIDA/Ministry of Employment

The Rural Youth Vocational Training, Employment and Entrepreneurship Support Project (FIER), which began operations in 2014, has the objective of facilitating access by young people to attractive and profitable activities in the agriculture sector and related activities, allowing them to eventually become actors in modern agricultural value chains responsive to market demand. Everyone between the ages of 15 and 40 living in the targeted villages is entitled to take part in project activities.

CASE: Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP)

Nigeria

IFAD

The Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP) aimed to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of rural families in the nine states of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. While the larger target group comprised the poorest people in rural areas, the programme developed a specific targeting strategy to support youth (aged 18-35) and women in agribusiness. The value chains included crop production, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture/cage fisheries. Selection was based on the abundant and diverse natural resources in the programme area. CBNRMP adapted the initial community-driven development (CDD) approach to suit the objective of agribusiness development and to design a pathway for youth to create enterprises. This modification generated a huge response from young people.

CASE: Los Pinos Cooperative

El Salvador

Development of legal tolos and contractual incentives to promote the inter-vivos transfer (transfer made during lifetime) of land to younger members of the cooperative.

CASE: ZAAPs

Togo

Government

Zones of planned agricultural development (ZAAP) have been created by the Togolese State between 2008 and 2009 to facilitate access to land for young farmers. The State establishes an agreement with a community or a land owner to delimit the zone and preparation is undertaken (clearing, first tillage) so that the ready to start farming parcels can be allocated to the young farmers. The beneficiaries of such distribution receive a certificate which provides them with the right to use the land. The main advantage of this system is that it facilitates access to land for the young farmers, even if they are not members of the community or of the village where the ZAAP is located.

CASE: Rural Youth Mobility Project

Tunisia, Ethiopia

FAO/Italian Cooperation

In Tunisia, the RYM project addressed these challenges by piloting an innovative mechanism for the engagement of the diaspora to enhance its positive contribution to rural areas of origin. As a result, more than 50 per cent of the agricultural enterprises supported by the RYM project benefitted from a financial and technical contribution of the diaspora (initial target set was 30 per cent). Such positive outcome was the result of awareness raising and capacity building covering all the phases of selection and support of the agricultural enterprises implementation. Ad hoc assistance, including mediation between young producers in Tunisia and diaspora members and support to establishing business communication was provided to projects financed by Tunisians living abroad. This innovative diaspora engagement process covered various stages of the RYM project.

CASE: MAST (Mobile Applications to Secure Tenure)

Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Zambia

USAID

Provision of training to village youth to use a data capture app installed on low-cost phones to map land parcels in their communities.

CASE: YELP (Youth Entrepreneur Loan Project)

Bangladesh

Grameen Foundation

Provision of loans to youth or youth groups for the creation of businesses. 99% estimated repayment rate.

CASE: Adolescent Empowerment Programme

Kenya

CARE

Adolescent Empowerment Program is a 5-year program that targets adolescents in rural areas of Kajiado as well as the central and urban informal settlement of Mukuru, in Nairobi County, with the following innovations: Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH), Economic Citizenship Empowerment (ECE), and Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT). It reached 14396 children.

CASE: Y-CEDEP (Youth and caregiver’s entrepreneurship development programme)

Zambia

Child Fund, New Zealand Cooperation

Support to 30 caregivers and 20 youth groups through training on business skills and access to financial services through group loans.

CASE: Youth in Action Program

Burkina Faso, Egipto, Uganda, Etiopia, Malawi

Mastercard Foundation/Save the Children.

4000 youth (12-18 years old) trained in the five countries in financial education and vocational training.

CASE: YouthInvest

Morocco/Egypt

Mastercard Foundation

Training to youth on life skills, entrepreneurship and financial management, as well as of NGOs and financial institutions on development of financial services adapted to youth. 43300 youth trained, 2000 opened saving accounts.

CASE: Rural Youth Economic Empowerment Programme (RYEEP)

Yemen/Morocco

IFAD/Making Cents

The Rural Youth Economic Empowerment Programme (RYEEP) supported Al Amal Bank in Yemen in providing financial services to rural youth. Despite the major conflict that surfaced in 2015, the bank developed a rural expansion strategy, launched operations in 13 rural areas, invested in technology to reduce costs and, at programme end, was actively serving 4,479 young borrowers, 3,482 of whom also opened savings accounts.

In Morocco, the Rural Youth Economic Empowerment Programme (RYEEP) partnered with ABB to increase youth access to financial services that could help them manage their assets and invest in education or livelihoods. This was largely done through promoting savings to youth through a youth-inclusive savings product called Tawfir Al Ghad (TAG).

CASE: Start-ups using ICTs

AfriTaste (Gambia), Sooretul (Senegal), Takataka Solutions (Kenya), AgroMindset (Ghana), AgroCenta (Ghana), Boomers (Ghana)

CASE: Apps

M-Omulimisa (Uganda), Plantix Tunisia (Tunisia)

CASE: PEJERIZ

Mali/Senegal

Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in West Africa’s Rice Value Chain (PEJERIZ) is a project which aims to combat unemployment of rural youth by actively engaging them in the West African rice value chain through training them with entrepreneurial skills. As rice is the largest food source in the region, there are many growing opportunities for youth employment. This project is a partnership between Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural (CTA), AfricaRice and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) to promote sustainable employment and economic growth in the main rice farming areas of Mali and Senegal through the development of ICT-based (Information and Communication Technology) extension services and mechanization services.

CASE: Training of leaders

Madagascar

SOA Network (Syndicat des organisations paysannes)/European Union

The Project offered training in productive activities but also in leadership, encouraging farmers’ organizations to include trained youth in their boards.

CASE: Youth-to-Youth Fund

Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

ILO/USAID

Youth identified and selected the initiatives to be funded, which benefited over 6200 youth and created 2650 jobs.

CASE: ICA (Integrated Country Approach for promoting decent employment)

Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Guatemala

FAO

The approach facilitates policy coherence among agriculture, employment and youth-related policies in each country.

CASE: Youth networks

Red de jóvenes de Colombia, SECAC, GYIN, YPARD, Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network

CASE: Youth Development Programme

India

Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

SEWA has a youth development programme that creates education centres in rural villages. Youth can access them through a small fee. The courses have placements units that aim at connecting young women with employment opportunities. 2,000 girls became trainers of trainers for these courses.

CASE: KadAfrica

Uganda

KadAfrica (NGO)

KadAfrica is a social business that grants out-of-school girls with a small plot of land, passionfruit vines, and a marketplace to sell the fruit. KadAfrica provides intensive training in entrepreneurship, financial literacy and gender empowerment. Thus far, 1,650 girls have boosted their incomes to $20 - $50 per month—representing a 600% increase in income per participant. Some young women have used the money to expand their agribusinesses, and others have started new ventures, such as a nursery school for local children. They have won prices for their success.

CASE: Empowering Young women through business and vocational training

Egypt

USAID/Population Council

4000 young women who participated in the programme increased their abilities to enter the job market. They were trained in business skills, vocational training, and life, legal, and civic education.

CASE: Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program

Uganda

BRAC (NGO)

ELA is a set of interventions implemented by the non-profit foundation BRAC designed to improve the lives of adolescent girls along multiple dimensions. It does so by simultaneously offering girls vocational skills, life skills, as well as a safe space to meet and socialize with other adolescent girls. The organization operates in six countries with the highest child marriage and teenage pregnancy rates covering different regions of the world (Uganda, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Haiti and Sierra Leone). 

CASE: Songhai Centre

Benin

Songhai NGO

A Songhai Centre is an incubation center for technological experimentation and production of agricultural goods. There are 5 centres in Benin. Since 1999, each semester, the Songhai centre in Borgou welcomes, like other Songhai training centres, young men and young women for agricultural training for a period of 18 months. The centre has 17 permanent workers and 160 students’ farmers including 22 girls for the June 2016 recruitment.

CASE: Maisons familiales rurales (MFRs)

Cameroun

FEMAFARC (Fédération des écoles et maisons familiales rurales du Cameroun)

The MFRs are a model of training for rural youth created in France in the 30s. They have since become a model for training in farming activities for rural youth, who spend some time in the school and some time in their farms at home applying what they learnt (alternate training system). There are 9 MFRs in Cameroun.

CASE: Programme régional d’éducation et de formation des populations pastorales en zones transfrontalières (PREPP)

5 border zones with transhumance: Burkina Faso/Benin/Togo, Mali/Burkina Faso, Niger/Benin, Tchad/Niger, Mauritania/Mali

APESS (Association pour la promotion de l’élévage au Sahel et en Savane)

The programme provides training to cross-border communities, who are generally excluded from education programmes that require to be in the same place. 10,000
transhumant breeders will receive training tailored to their needs.

CASE: FORMAPROD

Madagascar

IFAD/Ministry of Agriculture